klisemfg Chapter 336 The Last Madness (5)
Chapter 336 The Last Madness (5)
The Prime Minister lit his cigar, took a deep breath, and exhaled a stream of smoke. He stood up and slowly walked a few steps around his office. Severe gout had deformed his feet, and he relied on crutches when out and about. Only in his office could he take these few steady steps alone.
As if after careful consideration, he walked steadily to the desk and pressed the red summoning bell. Not long after, the Chief Aide-de-Camp hurried into the room and stood respectfully aside, awaiting the Prime Minister's instructions.
The Prime Minister said in an unquestionable tone: "Ennis, you immediately inform Marshal Mountbatten that from today onwards, the British Air Force will no longer bomb civilian areas in German cities."
Ennis quickly left after receiving the order, leaving only the Prime Minister and Pu Lin in the room. Pu Lin looked puzzled and asked, "Sir, what exactly are your considerations behind this action?"
The Prime Minister waved his cigar-holding hand gently, sending smoke billowing into the air. He spoke slowly, "Mr. Foreign Minister, you should know that there is no doubt about defeating the fascists. We must distinguish between the fascists and the German civilian population."
He paused and continued, "Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and even the flower-growing countries in the East. These countries will inevitably become new world powers after the war. After resolving the German issue, we need to consider more aspects."
The Prime Minister's eyes grew penetrating, and he continued, "Although the Germans have caused us some harm, it is obviously the Russians who hate them the most. Moreover, there is a fundamental ideological opposition between the Soviet Union and us. After the war, our relations may become tense, and even some unexpected problems may arise."
The Prime Minister took a deep drag on his cigar and slowly exhaled the smoke, as if thinking about something. He continued: "In this case, we need to take some measures to ease the situation. It's better to have one more friend than one more enemy, isn't it?"
Pu Lin immediately understood the Prime Minister's intention. He quickly stood up and said, "Sir, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should do something about this. I will arrange it right away. Some people in Germany have already contacted our people through various channels. I think it's time for us to show them some goodwill."
The Prime Minister nodded with satisfaction and said, "It would be best if the Foreign Office issued a clear statement on the British Empire's punishment of fascists and war crimes. We must put forward our position at this time and let the world know our position."
Pu Lin agreed that he was well aware of the importance of the statement and would do his utmost to ensure that the Foreign Office could formulate a strong and appropriate statement to safeguard the interests and reputation of the British Empire.
Soon, the British Foreign Office's statement appeared in major British media outlets. Meanwhile, China, the US, and the Soviet Union also put forward their own proposals. Soon, the main leaders of the Allied powers convened a summit in the Soviet city of YRT to unify their postwar policy toward Germany.
Over the next month, the Allies dispatched strategic air forces to drop large numbers of leaflets on German soil and occupied territories, letting Germans and Germanic people know that the Allies were urging the German army to surrender and the terms for punishing war criminals.
In mid-April, the Allies launched a full-scale offensive against the German army from the west and south, while the Soviets launched an all-out offensive from the east. A fleet, primarily composed of the US Navy, blockaded the Baltic coast, cutting off the German army's retreat routes to Norway and Sweden.
In late April, the Soviets, with over four million troops from the Don, First, and Second Belorussian Fronts, engaged German Army Group A in a fierce battle at the border between Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Germany. Despite the Germans' incredible combat prowess, especially their newly developed armored forces, supported by helicopter gunships and missile units, which outnumbered the Soviets ten to one, inflicting massive casualties. Zhukov's Second Belorussian Front suffered particularly heavy losses, with several of its armies suffering heavy losses, including over 4 tanks. However, the Soviets, leveraging their numerical superiority, annihilated the Germans' last remaining elite forces on the Eastern Front.
On May 5, the largest-scale battle on the Eastern Front came to an end. German Army Group A was essentially crippled and forced to retreat, and the Soviet army finally broke into mainland Germany.
At the same time, the 2nd, 4th, 8th and 11th Army Groups and their direct units, totaling nearly 4 million people, of the Flora Expeditionary Force in the south also entered Austria and Hungary. As the German forces in the south had been almost exhausted, the Flora Army was like entering an empty land and quickly liberated a large number of areas. In less than a week, the Flora Expeditionary Force met up with the US and Soviet armies respectively at the border areas between Austria, Hungary and Germany.
At this time, the US military was also making very smooth progress. Some middle and low-level German generals had already realized that Germany's demise was only a matter of time. During the battle, they began to consciously surrender to the US and Chinese armies.
On the Eastern Front, the main German forces have been exhausted, and are currently relying on local self-defense forces to resist. Except for a few SS troops, fascist fanatics, and remnants of the German Wehrmacht, they have secretly fled to the Western Front, looking for opportunities to surrender to the Chinese and American troops.
In Frankfurt, Field Marshal Schörner, commander of the German Army Group A, shot himself in the temporary headquarters after issuing the final general retreat order.
The last German reinforcements on the Eastern Front, mainly composed of the remnants of the 1st Tank Army, began to evacuate in the direction of Berlin. During the process, the German division-level units began to disperse, and the Wehrmacht units broke away and headed straight for the Western Front. The SS and others fought desperately but were defeated and a large number of areas in Germany were lost.
Some of the Soviet soldiers' actions in the occupied territories also met with fierce resistance from the people. Due to the presence of Western journalists and military representatives, the Soviet army had to put on a show and make some statements about the obvious criminal acts.
In this way, the Soviet army, which originally had the strongest force and the most fierce attack, encountered increasingly fierce resistance. Some elite German troops who had originally fled to the Western Front, when they were desperate, burst out with amazing combat power and inflicted heavy damage on the Soviet army.
The Soviet army's retaliation was also very fierce. Wherever there was resistance, they took advantage of their artillery and armor to launch indiscriminate bombing. The entire area east of Berlin, Germany was full of killing. Wherever the Soviet army arrived, it was like a swarm of locusts, leaving no hope of survival.
As Western journalists uncovered more evidence of fascist crimes against humanity in occupied territories on both the eastern and western fronts, the Soviet offensive's misdeeds gradually began to be covered up. Jewish soldiers in the American and British armies also joined the effort to identify war criminals. Some fascists who had attempted to escape punishment by surrendering under the guise of German Wehrmacht soldiers were identified, and they faced the judgment of history.